ACCEPTANCE AND COMMITMENT THERAPY INTERVENTION FOR PARENT CAREGIVERS: A STRENGTH-BASED APPROACH

Abstract ACT has emerged as a behavioral change approach that has been applied to address a wide range of challenges. Empirical research has shown that ACT can deliver positive long-term effects across various populations, including caregivers. Using six core principles of ACT, we have revised an acceptance and commitment therapy program (ACT) for custodial grandparents and their grandchildren. Our intervention program emphasized the importance of acceptance and promoting resilience among participants. This approach is particularly valuable for this population as the focus of the program is to strengthen their competencies, life skills and emotional resilience. The program consists of a web based ACT program with online coaching meetings across four sessions delivered for each age group. This program is unique in the sense that it utilizes both individual and group session techniques to facilitate the learning process. The main purpose of the program is to promote effective coping strategies, to reduce parenting stress among grandparents and to increase life skills (i.e., decision-making, proactivity) among children. Preliminary findings suggest that participating in ACT programs could help custodial, foster and biological parents improve self-efficacy, emotional well-being, higher self-confidence, social competence, lower depressive symptoms, and parenting distress, thereby leading to positive outcomes such as improved mental health and higher resilience.


ADRD CAREGIVERS' ROLE PERCEPTION AND MENTAL HEALTH AFTER LTC-PLACEMENT OF FAMILY MEMBERS
Hyejin Kim 1 , Olimpia Paun 2 , Jessica Bishop-Royse 2 , Ben Inventor 2 , Masako Mayahara 3 , Sarah Ailey 2 , and Louis Fogg 4 , 1. Rush University College of Nursing,Chicago,Illinois,United States,2. Rush University,Chicago,Illinois,United States,3. Washington University in St. Louis,St. Louis,Missouri,United States,4.University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, United States The Chronic Grief Management Intervention-Video (CGMI-V) clinical trial tested the effects of an 8-week live online intervention for caregivers who placed their family members with ADRD in LTC on caregivers' mental health outcomes (grief, depression and anxiety symptoms, positive states of mind).This cross-sectional study used baseline data (n=95) from the CGMI-V.We performed hierarchical linear regression to examine the main effects of caregiving role perceptions on caregivers' levels of grief, depression, anxiety symptoms, and positive states of mind, controlling for potential covariates.At baseline, perceived caregiver role captivity was the most significant factor of outcome variables, followed by feelings of guilt and loss.Increased feelings of role captivity were linked to sum scores of grief as measured with the Marwit-Meuser Caregiver Grief Inventory.These findings indicate that increased feelings of role captivity were associated with increased feelings of loss and loss of interpersonal connections.Higher levels of perceived role captivity were associated with more depressive and anxiety symptoms.Caregivers with lower levels of perceived role captivity had higher levels of positive states of mind.The findings confirmed the need for interventions targeting caregivers' feelings of role captivity, loss, and guilt related to caregiving obligations post-LTC placement of family members with ADRD to reduce caregivers' grief, depression, and anxiety and to increase their positive states of mind.These baseline findings are preliminary.Future presentations will report the effects of the CGMI-V intervention on caregivers' grief and mental health, including weeks 8 and 24 follow-up data.

ACCEPTANCE AND COMMITMENT THERAPY INTERVENTION FOR PARENT CAREGIVERS: A STRENGTH-BASED APPROACH
Miranda Frederick, Jeong Eun Lee, and Amie Zarling, Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa, United States ACT has emerged as a behavioral change approach that has been applied to address a wide range of challenges.Empirical research has shown that ACT can deliver positive long-term effects across various populations, including caregivers.Using six core principles of ACT, we have revised an acceptance and commitment therapy program (ACT) for custodial grandparents and their grandchildren.Our intervention program emphasized the importance of acceptance and promoting resilience among participants.This approach is particularly valuable for this population as the focus of the program is to strengthen their competencies, life skills and emotional resilience.The program consists of a web based ACT program with online coaching meetings across four sessions delivered for each age group.This program is unique in the sense that it utilizes both individual and group session techniques to facilitate the learning process.The main purpose of the program is to promote effective coping strategies, to reduce parenting stress among grandparents and to increase life skills (i.e., decision-making, proactivity) among children.Preliminary findings suggest that participating in ACT programs could help custodial, foster and biological parents improve self-efficacy, emotional well-being, higher self-confidence, social competence, lower depressive symptoms, and parenting distress, thereby leading to positive outcomes such as improved mental health and higher resilience.

ADVERSE EFFECTS OF INTERNET USE ON SUBJECTIVE SOCIAL STATUS AND DEPRESSION SYMPTOMS AMONG CHINESE OLDER ADULTS
Aruhan Mu, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, Hubei, China (People's Republic) Internet use has been found to be associated with decreases in depressive symptoms among older adults.However, past evidences may have had publication bias due to the negative consequences of internet use demonstrated in other age groups.Thus, this study aims to investigate the adverse effect of older adults' internet use on depressive symptoms and its mechanism.The inverse subjective social status (SSS) in depressive symptoms is a well-established research finding.
Based on this, we hypothesize that older adults' internet use could expand their reference group and exposing them to more ageist content, thus reducing their SSS which in turn increases depressive symptoms.We examined how older adults' internet use influences SSS and how SSS mediates the effect of internet use on depressive symptoms in China.The data were from wave 3 (2016, T1), 4 (2018, T2), and 5 (2020, T3) of the China Family Panel Studies, a nationally representative survey.The longitudinal mediation analysis included 3,237 participants who were aged 60 and above at T1 (wave 3) and were followed through waves 4 and 5.As expected, Internet use at T1 predicted lower levels of SSS at T2.Lower levels of SSS at T2 predicted higher levels of depressive symptoms at T3.This medicating effect was significant.This time-varying mediation which appeared to be explained by the relative deprivation and ageism following internet use among older adults.This study theorizes and provides evidence for previously overlooked psychosocial pathway through which internet use among older adults produces negative consequences.

ASSOCIATION OF CHILDHOOD EXPOSURE TO SCHOOL RACIAL SEGREGATION WITH LATE-LIFE COGNITION AMONG AMERICAN ADULTS
Zhuoer Lin 1 , Yi Wang 1 , Thomas Gill 2 , and Xi Chen 1 , 1. Yale University,New Haven,Connecticut,United States,2. Yale School of Medicine,New Haven,Connecticut,United States Racial segregation may contribute to enduringly worse health outcomes and aging.Prior research mainly focuses on residential segregation, yet the long-term effects of school segregation and the effects for different racial/ethnic groups are largely unknown.Linking measures of primary school segregation using administrative data with a nationally representative population survey in the US, we examine how childhood exposure to school racial segregation shapes the late-life cognitive function.23,752 non-Hispanic White (White), 6,364 non-Hispanic Black (Black) American adults aged 50 and older were identified from the Health and Retirement Study; and state-level school dissimilarity indexes in late 1960s were linked to participants' latest wave of cognitive assessment using childhood residence.Multivariate regression analyses demonstrated that exposure to White-Black school segregation had strong, negative effects on cognitive outcomes for both White and Black participants.One standard deviation increase in dissimilarity index was associated with lower cognitive score (White: = -0.16[95%CI, -0.22, -0.11]; Black: = -0.42[95%CI, -0.53, -0.30]) and more cognitive impairment (White: Odds Ratio (OR) = 1.10 [95%CI, 1.06, 1.13]; Black: OR = 1.21 [95%CI, 1.14, 1.27]) adjusting for age and sex.Educational attainment and other